Today’s project was to make myself a circular needle case. I’d gotten quite tired of storing needles in their baggies in a shoe box – not to mention the baggies were all ripped and the cards inside bent – and I have an irregular collection of needles consisting of Addi Turbo, Addi Lace, ebony, rosewood, and osage orange from several brands.
During last night’s knit night, Rebekah helped me choose some scrapbooking items for my vision. I started with an 8×8 post-bound album which was not only pretty, but had a convenient space on the front for me to put the word "Needles"! (Just in case I ever forget what’s in it, I guess…) Inside, I simply replaced the generic white papers that were inside the page protectors with pretty colored paper that mostly matched the album. A sticker on each page tells me what size needle is in there, and then the needle gets slipped into the page protector. Easy, pretty…and yet, this made an enormously thick binder once the needles were in it. Luckily I had a bunch of post extenders, so I used a stack of three to enlarge the binding. It’s still just a smidge too narrow for the contents – and I didn’t even put my size 13 (and up) needles into it, or my one pair of old Boye flex needles, or my Addi stitch holder.
But I was also worried about the possibility of needles slipping out of the page protectors when the book is in transit. So I added a ribbon tie that goes around the entire exterior of the album; this allows me to tie it tightly enough to squeeze the covers down to match the width of the binding, and thus helps keep the page sleeves tight, so the needles won’t slip out.
Yes, I tested it! I shook it all around while upside down, and no needles even appeared to be budging.
This was fun, so I might make some to sell on etsy. I don’t have need or desire for intense scrapbooking, but creating the empty book was easy and fun.
The US Picks 